Jayce kit Improvement Concepts

Now, before you all get your panties in a bunch, do understand that this is only a minor rework at best. Something like Fiddlesticks improvements during the mage rework. Also, I know he isn't really in a bad place and this is not at all urgent, just some ideas I wanted to discuss. Okay, so, Jayce's kit is not at all bad. It actually functions surprisingly well. In particular, his q and e abilities in both stances are perfect. In cannon stance, his q provides ranged damage to complement his ranged AA, and his e combines with his q for more of that plus the movespeed which helps reposition as well as transition into hammer stance range. In hammer stance, his q forms a powerful gap closer and its slow helps maintain that closed gap. And his e grants cc to keep an enemy away, transition back to cannon stance, or simply deal a good amount of close range damage. Jayce's passive is perfect for form transitions, too. The problems I see come from both his w's and his ultimate on hit effects. Well, starting with the cannon stance w, although the attack speed buff is great, the damage reduction, especially in the early game, and the strength of the buff sorta suggest on hit effects are the way to go. However, Jayce has no perpetual on hit effect in his kit that is useful to burst in combat, and a build revolving around on hit effects would not function that well with his other abilities, and its inherent attack speed items would reduce the value of w. In hammer stance, don't get me wrong. The w passive is really useful for a spamming champion like Jayce, and the damage from the active makes sense since it is close range. However, since the ability scales from AP, it is practically useless in the late game (unless you went full AP jayce, which is an entirely different problem). And finally, the on hit damage of Jayce's ult is relatively ok. However, it honestly seems backwards. The armor reduction is good, but it doesn't work as well on a poke centered ranged kit. It's also difficult to save for just before transitioning. In addition, Jayce deals zero magic damage in cannon stance. So the mr reduction is virtually useless. Hammer stance already has most of his kit's damage, but admittedly the problem is mostly in cannon stance. So these are my suggestions, which I hope you all consider: In cannon stance, my main suggestion is a little on hit magic damage, that only appears briefly, and scales with AP. Personally, I'd suggest a buff that lasts between three and five seconds granted immediately after switching to cannon stance. This would be a small amount of magic damage, with a similarly small scaling. This way, the mr reduction is put to use, your w can be combined to magnify the damage, and in the late game the ad power of your w will make it worth on its own. Also, I imagined this damage would extend the duration of the resistance reduction by very little, decreasing with each attack, so that if you used the ult passive immediately you may still have some time to switch to hammer stance and benefit from the reductions. This addition should make cannon stancing just that much more fluid, both making early game w more influential as well as improving the value of his ult passive. In hammer stance, the problem is mainly his w. However, as to what I said about cannon stance, a similar effect seems like it must be added for cannon stance. I suggest similar damage, for the same duration, upon switching, with two main differences. Firstly, this damage should be halved, as hammer stance already has that on hit effect. But, it should spread to enemies near the main target as a dueling ability for Jayce. And, since the ult passive is on hit damage, I suggest that its damage be spread as well, in a reduced form on that attack, while this buff is active. Now, referring back to Jayce's w, you may think I want it to scale with ad. I do not, as that would be ridiculous. What I believe is that it should be given some form of cc that increases with the ability's level, making it most useful in the mid to late game when the damage falls off. This cc could come as a form of weak, aoe slow, but my preferred version is that anyone in the w aoe that Jayce attacks is afflicted with the cc. It doesn't have to be a slow, either. Instead, it could be a diminishing rebuff that extends the duration of cc Jayce applies on the target, or strengthens slows he places on them (maybe even a little of both). This would apply mainly to his hammer stance q, but could synergize with items or new masteries as well.

And that, folks, is my suggestions! Now, don't hate it before giving it a thought or two at least. I know this stuff isn't perfect, it's just ideas. The on hit effects in cannon stance make use of your range for bonus damage, make your w more valuable, and the ult passive on hit reduction more useful. All in all, I think they make ranged trades more reasonable and increase your ability values. To make up for this buff, I would have to suggest maybe just a small reduction to Jayce's base damage, but a small increase to his increase per level. This would make up for the early game buff in both stances from the on hit damage, that would be made up for by late item purchases and stuff. Keep in mind the AP scaling. In hammer stance, you are clearly no assassin, so you do rely on auto attacking once you go in. The bonus on hit damage will aid a little in that, as well as in hurting nearby enemies once you go all in. The cc on your w is only reasonable, since it does little else, and it'd be important for you to keep your target in range. And to make up for this buff, I'd suggest a base damage reduction to his w, a slight reduction on his q's cc (probably more in the early game). Also, the w cc should increase per level. Oh! And I'd suggest that the mana regain be reduced during the active of w. And some cooldown adjustments to keep Jayce from being op all around. So, what do you guys think?